The tool and die industry involves the machining of both large and small parts and frequently it is necessary to work a very small object on a machine designed to accept a much larger workpiece. Such machines have vises and clamps sized to retain the largest work piece that the machine is intended to receive, however such vises and clamps are unsuitable for retaining miniaturized workpieces. To adapt such machines to receive very small workpieces, a fixturing tool is employed which has a mounting portion for fitting within the jaws of the vise or clamp of the machine and a retaining portion, often configured as a "V", for retaining a miniature workpieces.
While small objects may be considered as constituting a single group, in reality, there are substantial differences of scale between sizes of such objects and, therefore, it is common to provide a plurality of sizes of fixturing tools to receive the many different sizes of small parts which can be machined. A tool and die maker, therefore, must maintain a multiplicity of sizes of fixturing tools for the machines which may be employed to accept small parts. It would be desirable, therefore, to provide a single fixturing tool which could be retained in the vise of a machine and could hold a multiplicity of sizes of small parts. It would also be desirable to have a fixturing tool that would be useable in conjunction with products such as V-blocks, and with angle plates, inspection equipment, integrated tooling, or as a standing alone retainer.